ACCESSIBILITY

2008/05/05

When one of the most generous and best food writers in the country retires from his job at the Los Angeles Times, Super had to find out more. Charles Perry is the world's foremost authority on medieval Arab cookery and the culinary history of Los Angeles. The LA Times reported that Charles has retired and will next be traveling to Turkey:

He is the quintessential "Renaissance Culinarian," equal parts historian, storyteller, detective and cook. While food is but one of Charlie's passions -- do a Web search under his name and you're likely to find references to medieval cuisine, long-dead languages, Haight-Ashbury, Rolling Stone magazine and even Augustus Owsley Stanley (his college roommate) -- it has, of course, been the focus of his professional life. A member of the Times staff for 18 years, Charlie has often been referred to as the wit of the Food section, with knowledge (and personal experience) covering everything from historic California pit barbecue to the finest ancient recipes for rotted barley.

Besides his trip to Turkey to a conference at Traditional Tastes Conference in Safranbolu and Istanbul to study medieval Arabic cookbooks, Charles told the LA Times that he plans to continue his work with the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery and the Culinary Historians of Southern California (of which he is a co-founder and longtime president). Charles added:

I'll send my agent my Partying Like It's 1399 proposal next month. I'm also incubating ideas for a history of Middle Eastern food, maybe with elements of a Waverly Root-style survey of regional styles, and a history of L.A.'s food tradition going back to the mid-19th century (most Angelenos know nothing of our history unless it has something to do with Hollywood so they don't know, for instance, that the first Cabernet Sauvignon in this country was made around where City Hall stands today).

Super Chef will be first in line to purchase and read Charles' next books. If you don't have it already, get his Medieval Arab Cookery - it is a classic, and read his forward to Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World (Read Super Chefreview). These are must reading for anyone interested in the cuisine of the Middle East.